The seven-day case rate has fallen again in Rutland after the county recorded just one case of Covid-19 yesterday.

The total of cases since the start of the pandemic now stands at 1566- meaning about one-in-25 residents will have tested positive with the virus at some stage.

With the county recording 29 cases over the past week, this gives a case rate of 72.6, which compares with the England average of 62.8 cases per 100,000.

No deaths were recorded yesterday, with the total remaining at 60, and the county not recording a death since last Thursday. This means about one-in-650 residents will have died with Covid-19 at some stage.

Meanwhile, in Lincolnshire, no deaths with covid-19 were recorded in South Kesteven yesterday, but the district reported 18 cases.

The figures released this afternoon also reveal that the 7-day infection rate continues to trend down.

Some 81 cases were recorded in South Kesteven over the past seven days, giving the district a rate of 56.9 cases per 100,000.

The total number of cases in the district is 6924, which means around one-in-20 residents will have tested positive with the virus at some stage.

The number of deaths, which remains at 261, means that almost one-in-500 will have died with Covid-19 during the pandemic to date.

Overall, there have been 128 new coronavirus cases and three COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire on Tuesday — compared to 97 cases and seven deaths this time last week.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 91 new cases in Lincolnshire, 22 in North East Lincolnshire and 15 in North Lincolnshire.

On Tuesday, two deaths were registered in Lincolnshire, one in North East Lincolnshire and -1 in North Lincolnshire. Fluctuations in data are usually due to some deaths in those areas being reallocated to other regions across the UK or a miscount.

These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.

On Tuesday, national cases increased by 5,766 to 4,228,998, while deaths rose by 231 to 124,797.

New NHS text alerts began on Tuesday to invite people to book a slot for their life-saving COVID jab, including across Rutland.

Almost 400,000 people aged 55 and over, as well as 40,000 unpaid carers, will be the first to get the text alerts nationally as part of the NHS' biggest ever vaccination programme.

In national news, speeding up easing lockdown risks leaving the country "flying blind" to the risks of another surge in cases, the government's chief scientific adviser has warned.

Sir Patrick Vallance told a group of MPs the five-week gap between each step of easing restrictions was needed to evaluate the impact on infections and transmission.

The Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine was able to combat the Brazil variant of COVID-19, it has been revealed.

Scientists tested the blood of people who had received the jab and found it fared well against a laboratory made version of the virus similar to the one first discovered in Brazil.